How Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Could Lead to the Rise of Millions of Layer 3s - Ep. 620

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Ethereum’s long-awaited Dencun upgrade finally went live this week, and many L2s immediately saw their transaction fees fall dramatically, as was the intention. Among them was the Coinbase-incubated Base, which was created by Jesse Pollak. Pollak joined Unchained to discuss the impact Dencun was having on Base; how he thinks Layer 1s and Layer 2s will start to differ from one another and eventually spawn a multitude of specialized Layer 3s; his response to criticisms of the increasing use of Layer 2s, what he’s focusing on now, and why he supports using the word “onchain” over “crypto” or “web3.” 

Show highlights:

The problem that Dencun is trying to solve

The benefits of blobs and blobspace

How Dencun has already reduced Base’s fees, but also increased its transactions

How Jesse thinks Layer 1s and Layer 2s will start to become differentiated from each other

The rise of Layer 3s

How Jesse addresses criticisms of fragmentation and centralization arising from the increasing use of Layer 2s

Why Jesse is particularly excited about two features of the Dencun upgrade—transient storage and increased composability between L1s and L2s

What Jesse and the Base team are focusing on now

Why Jesse thinks that “onchain” is a better word to describe the industry than “crypto” or “blockchain” or “web3” 

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Guest

Jesse Pollak, creator of Base at Coinbase

Previous appearances:

The Chopping Block: All About That Base With Jesse Pollak 

Links

Recent coverage on Unchained of the Dencun Upgrade and Base: 

Dencun Day One: Ethereum Layer 2 Networks See Drastic Drop in Transaction Fees

Ethereum Completes Milestone Dencun Upgrade, Which Should Substantially Reduce Fees

How Much Will the Dencun Upgrade Really Reduce Ethereum Layer 2 Fees By?

Why Base’s Creator Thinks Social Apps Will Be a ‘Huge Part’ of the Layer 2 Blockchain’s Success

CoinDesk:

Debating Dencun: Will Ethereum's Big Update Help or Harm the Network?

Jesse’s tweets on Dencun

October 2022 

January 2024

March 13, 2024 

Blobs / Proto-danksharding

EIP-4844 proposal

Blobs unleashed: Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade activates on mainnet 

Base says it will support EIP-4844 from 'day 1' following Dencun upgrade 

Ethereum stans are putting the Bee Movie on blobs for as little as $5

Superchain

Decentralizing Base with the OP Stack and Optimism 

Base’s Commitment to Decentralization with the Superchain 

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